As you’ve probably read by now, Dying Light is a pretty great game, if you block your eyes and ears to everything the story tries to through at you. That aside, the act of smashing zombie heads while leaping like a marsupial across rooftops and a heap of fun, and it helps that the city of Harran is a consistently gorgeous city to look at. But which platforms are best?
The ever so awesome guys at Digital Foundry have dived deep into Techland’s latest title, scrounging around to see where (and how badly) it breaks on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Both console versions of the game run at a capped 30FPS, but the game occasionally dips a few frames lower during intense encounters. The resolutions are nearly identical, although the Xbox One scales down to 1536×1080, as opposed to the PS4’s standard 1920×1080. As such, textures will look a touch worse on the Xbox, although a reduction that small would be difficult to call.
However, the PS4 manages to come out tops in terms of overall average frame-rate, texture streaming and little to no screen tear, making it the undeniable winner in the console race this time. It’s interesting to see how different engines react on the hardware, as Assassin’s Creed Unity (another massive open-world title) fared better on Microsoft’s platform. But, as always, it’s advisable to go the PC route if you have the choice – although you’ll need to be very careful with the settings.
As I discovered during my review, Dying Light has a few issues with CPU usage in general. Digital Foundry experienced this as well, finding that the game likes to bottleneck after the first core of your CPU reaches its max usage. After this the game grinds to a crawl, with frame rate drops exceeding 30FPS in some cases. This seems to go hand-in-hand with the game’s view distance slider, which brings PCs to their knees when pushed to max. It is important to note that the lowest view distance setting on PC is still superior to both PS4 and Xbox One, and all in all you’ll be able to get a console experience with fairly modest hardware. Put if you’re pushing for max, you’re going to need to bring the hardware to back it up.
My personal experience with a GTX 970 and still extremely awesome i7 2770K was a bit of a mix. Most of the time the game run well above 60FPS, but there were numerous instances where the frame rate would inexplicably plummet. In some cases a full restart of the game was required, after which problems resolved. There has already been a small patch deployed, but I’m hoping for Techland to address these issues very soon.
Because ultimately Dying Light is a gorgeous game, with some impressive lighting and model detail. If you’re going for the best, PC is most certainly the best option, but stick to PS4 if you’re forced to grab it on console.
Last Updated: February 2, 2015
Tosh MA
February 2, 2015 at 15:03
Hey, that’s racist. *Looks at header*
He’s just an innocent dealer trying to make his way in Hillbrow, no reason to punch him!
Hammersteyn
February 2, 2015 at 15:47
But he’s carrying my TV
Tosh MA
February 2, 2015 at 16:07
Where’s the receipt?
Hammersteyn
February 2, 2015 at 16:20
Okay so it’s his TV
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 2, 2015 at 15:08
The story is so crap it runs through you?
Captain JJ the crafter
February 2, 2015 at 15:12
The best platform for any game is…..
Whichever your preference is. 🙂
Except for Red Dead Redemption of course.
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 2, 2015 at 15:16
Wuss!
Ghost In The Rift
February 2, 2015 at 15:24
Still no news on RDR being ported to PC?
Captain JJ the crafter
February 2, 2015 at 15:39
I’ve made peace with it. *sniffs*
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 2, 2015 at 15:47
PCs have never needed a game to achieve redemption from the red ring of death. :/
Captain JJ the crafter
February 2, 2015 at 16:02
boom
Hammersteyn
February 2, 2015 at 15:48
PS2 Emulator
oVg elfroot slayer
February 2, 2015 at 15:14
Off topic: Vaas is in “Better Call Saul” 🙂
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3103126/
Captain JJ the crafter
February 2, 2015 at 15:18
Mister Mando. He’s excellent.
oVg elfroot slayer
February 2, 2015 at 15:20
Banks will still kick his Ass 🙂
I am looking so forward to this series. I seem to be watching more series these days than playing Videogames. Must be bored.
Captain JJ the crafter
February 2, 2015 at 15:40
I have now officially heard of the series for the first time. 🙂
Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7
February 2, 2015 at 15:20
Turn off Hyperthreading. You’ll see less issues. The game was designed to run on consoles first. As usual this is a porting optimisation issue again.
But with stock 4 cores instead of 4 + 4 virtual it will stop being such a problem. It was designed to run on an octo core AMD, but physical cores. It’s something about the virtual cores that causes the game to freak.
That being said… There is no “better” platform. Only the platform you have. Most people don’t own all 3 or even 2 out of the 3. You own either an Xbox OR a PC OR a console. In some cases you will have someone with both a PC and a console, but you will find the PC in that case is not as good because the main unit for gaming is the console.
Either way, it’s disgusting to see yet another game come out with such terrible PC optimisations. Makes me sick to my stomach that developers and publishers think it’s OK and then we have to wait for a patch once people get angry enough or the media rips them apart. This industry is going for a ball of….
Admiral Chief
February 2, 2015 at 15:30
This is good news for me
Hammersteyn
February 2, 2015 at 15:51
So you’re gonna play it on PS4? The console is goes for less than R7000 😛
Lothy
February 3, 2015 at 07:48
this is actually awesome. In you opinion would it not be better to just keep hyper threading off? As most games come predesigned for console, this might be a common problem throughout?
Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7
February 3, 2015 at 09:59
Not sure hey. In general Hyperthreading produces 0 benefits in games anyway. There is only 2 games I can think of, off the top of my head that benefits from HT and that’s Planetside 2 amd Guild Wars 2. Everything else sees absolutely no benefit.
My HT is off all the time as it’s not needed for gaming (yet)
Guest
February 2, 2015 at 15:46
Shame…
Hammersteyn
February 2, 2015 at 15:53
Doesn’t matter. I dare anyone to do the Pepsi/Coke test blindfolded and say which one is better without checking which console it’s running on. But some would buy it on PC and stream it to the XBOX One just cause.
SentientSlug
February 2, 2015 at 16:37
You would never be able to tell which console it was running on. Its a little ridiculous that we have to run them side by side to get to the bottom of which is “better”.
Hammersteyn
February 3, 2015 at 07:49
Agreed, the difference is really so small.
Parker
February 2, 2015 at 15:54
So many typos, jeez. This is your job man, at least make sure your work looks professional. In this day and age typos are inexcusable.
SentientSlug
February 2, 2015 at 16:17
“PC is most certainly the best option, but stick to PS4 if you’re forced to grab it on console.” FLAME BAIT!!!!!
SentientSlug
February 2, 2015 at 16:28
AND although this article is purely flame bait captain Barbosa, it would have been nice to get some insight into differences in gameplay. For instance, perhaps the parkour feels more natural with a keyboard, or the combat feels more rounded with a controller?
Spaffy
February 2, 2015 at 16:39
2700k or 3770k?
You can’t have both 😀
Andy
February 2, 2015 at 20:53
Dying Light Games, PS4, Xbox One, Video Games and more is now available for a huge discount only at (Holiday ShoppingMart:com)
Lothy
February 3, 2015 at 07:46
hmm GTX970 and u having random drops in performance, must be a hardware bug 😉
Just trolling.
Novakaine
February 3, 2015 at 09:05
Tries to “through” at you?? Really??
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 6, 2015 at 11:06
So.. Wii is the best?